Science

You can learn the most interesting things in anatomy books. Did you know that the act of swallowing is scientifically known as deglutition? I wonder if that can be turned into a command, as in, "Ian, deglutite your food"?

Physics

Hey gals! While one of my math geek friends was looking for an English explanation of a math concept on the internet he ran into this. It is a math text book (you will need a cable modem to view) witten by Sean Mauch, a Montanan who now teaches at Caltech. The best part however is that he has a sense of humor. In the appedices he has quite a few geeky math jokes. Here is one.

In order to reduce processing costs, a chicken farmer wished to aquire a plucking machine. Since there was no such machine on the market, he hired a mechanical engineer to design one. After extensive research and testing, the professor concluded that it was impossible to build such a machine with current technology. The farmer was disappointed, but not wanting to abandon his dream of an automatic plucker, he consulted a physicist. After a single afternoon of work, the physycist reported that not only could a plucking machine be built, but that the design was simple. The elated farmer asked him to describe his method. The physicist replied, "First, assume a spherical chicken...".

It gets better!

The problems in this text book will implicitly make certain simplifying assumptions about chickens. For example, a problem might assume a perfectly elastic, frictionless, spherical ckicken. In two dimentional problems, we will assume that chickens are circular.

I wish my math test books had jokes in them.

Buy the way our movie theaters are never going to show P&P3. I think however I would rather go see Jarhead or Chicken Little or Just Friends or Saw 2 or Get Rich or Die Trying or Prime. Uh-huh. The Republic of Pemberley has had 1200 comments posted on P&P3 in the last two days. Whew.

Melodee says:
Great math jokes, Brooke! Next time we have dinner I'll cook a spherical chicken.

As for P&P. . . I called the movie theater today, and this is my conversation:

Me: "Hi, I've been checking on the website and I see that Pride and Prejudice still isn't here. Do you know when it will be coming?"
Guy: "Uh, that movie is out but it's only in select theaters."
Me: "Yes, but it already went to wide release."
Guy: "oh, yeah, I guess it was supposed to come on the 25th, but Billings didn't get it."
Me "Do you have any idea when we might get it?"
Guy: "uh...no."

hmmm...wasn't that helpful?! I wanted to ask "Why does BOZEMAN have it, for crying out loud, but we don't? We're BIGGER than Bozeman!" But I restrained myself. :)

Pluralism

We get National Geographic at work, as well as home...definitely one of my favorite magazines. The December issue has a good story on the crisis in Northern Uganda, which doesn't seem to be getting any better (but maybe that's because I'm only becoming more aware of it). There was also an interesting story on how Buddhism is becoming hugely popular and influential in the western world. I don't know much about Buddhism, so I was really struck by the first three of Buddha's "Four Noble Truths:"

1. There is suffering in the world, whether mental or physical.

2. Suffering occurs because of too great an attachment to one's desires.

3. By eliminating the cause - attachment - you can eliminate suffering.

That's probably not the greatest summation of Buddhism, but as it is, it seems really heartless. That sounds like telling a starving child in Uganda that he's suffering because of his own selfish desires; he isn't quite able to expand his mind and get outside of himself?! It just seems so bizarre that that would be a direct doctrinal statement, although I'm sure they try to reconcile it to real life. Real physical suffering, that isn't a figment of the imagination.

On the same page is a picture of caucasion monks in wide-brimmed hats, asking for vegetarian food donations. (Someone is handing out potato chips.) That's the problem I have with all acetism; not that meditation and self-discipline aren't good, but that it just seems like a selfish withdrawal from the world and for you own spiritual "good." Of course, I'm just the same way sometimes, in practice if not in theory...

Changing the subject, we didn't get a Christmas tree last weekend (it wasn't cold enough!), but we will this week. Now there's a few inches of snow on the ground, so I'm excited about it. And I'm ready to start watching Christmas movies. Anyone got some good recommendations? White Christmas and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (sad, I know) are two of my favorites.

Melodee says:
Yeah, Buddhism has never seemed particularly compassionate to me. Ultimately, suffering is the result of the fall, but we're all in the same boat as far as that goes so we all need the same remedy - a Savior. What is more comforting - deal with your suffering by becoming "detached" or rely on the One who experienced the depths of suffering to save you?

This reminds me of the thing I thought was really interesting about Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: When the main character is dying the woman he loves is urging him to remove his mind from all attachments, and he refuses. He recognizes that Buddhism has no place for human love and emotion, so he turns away from its teachings at the last moment and expresses his love for her in his dying breath. (I haven't seen the movie in years, but that's the way I remember it anyway!) It makes me thankful that I serve the God who deals richly in love - He loves us, and gives us love not only for Him but also for other people.

As for Christmas movies - I like to watch Little Women, While You Were Sleeping, and It's a Wonderful Life.

Happy Birthday, Dude!

Andrea dear, sorry this is a day late. I hope you had a fabulous birthday with your family. Think about being a quarter-century old. Isn't that COOL?!

Love you!

It's like looking in a mirror

It frightens me how much I see myself in today's Unfit comic.

Ha! I knew blue m&ms were bad

Here's conclusive scientific proof...or almost as good as...that blue m&ms are not normal, something I've long suspected. (They taste funny.)

Evidence # 1: The blue ones won't save you from the ostriches.

Evidence # 2: Could the blue ones be part of a plot to overthrow the world?

Okay, I do have something better to do with my time. I should go do it. ;)

But blue m&ms do taste bad, and that is the opinion that fire will not melt out of me!

Here's some real m&m science, by the way (candy chromatography).

Thursday Links. It IS Thursday, right?

iPod news: No more flat fees for iTunes?? Dude, that sucks!

This is horribly awesome. Rate the horrible sounds. I didn't listen to all of them, but I never heard one that was really unbearable.

Amanda send me this article this week. I was a little bummed because I just made for myself a brand new designer tin foil helmet.

Brooke send me this little game this week. I actually found myself laughing out loud while I was playing it. It's fun in an unexpected way.

Check out this cat with two tongues. Um...

This Middle Earth quiz was on Christian's blog and Susan gave me a heads up on it. I was some character that I have no idea who it is. Some elf, I think. Oh well. Elves are cool.

Italians are weird.

Ok girls, here's the next recipe for you to try.

Sevens

Here ya go Amanda and Ainsley.

Seven things to do before I die:
Skydive
Learn to love to pray
Be an aunt
Go to Rome
Memorize significantly more Scripture
Learn to play the piano
Learn to cook like my mother

Seven things I cannot do:
Be a "morning person"
Give up french fries (but, I'm still trying)
Love seafood
Be consistent at ANYTHING
Give up procrastination (Maybe someday I'll do it)
Sing (sing WELL anyway)
Cook like my mother

"Because I can't fill in "Seven things that attract me to Hubby"
Seven things that attract me to a guy (not necessarily in this order)":
Loves God
Kindness
Can laugh at himself
Can laugh both with and at me
Can make me laugh
Ability to apologize
Ability to forgive and forget when apologized to

Seven things I say most often:
Dude
Dude, that sucks
Dude, you suck
Sweet
Ya know...
Whatcha doin?
Hey

Seven books I love:
Jane Eyre
Far From the Madding Crowd
Pride and Prejudice
The Lord of the Rings
Romans
Valley of Vison
Are You My Mother?

Seven movies you watch over and over again:
Pride and Prejudice (A&E version)
Shall We Dance (American version)
The Thorn Birds
Two Weeks Notice
French Kiss
The Incredibles
I Am Sam

And since there should be SEVEN of these, I'm adding my own seventh one.
Seven things I'd rather be doing:
Sleeping
Eating French Fries
Hiking/Running/Walking/Snuggling with my puppy
Scuba diving in Hawaii
Hanging with my sister
Watching a movie with my Kindred Spirits
Sleeping (did I already say that?)

7 is a perfect number

While we're waiting for Andrea to post her Thursday links a little late, here's the meme Ainsley tagged me for. (Andrea, you gotta do this sometime, too!)

Seven 7s

Seven things to do before I die:
1. Go to Scotland
2. At least stop one bad habit
3. Stop taking my family so much for granted
4. Watch all the Harry Potter and Chronicles of Narnia movies which have yet to come out
5. Travel around Africa
6. Learn to rock climb, because it would be fun and cool and I would actually be doing something athletic
7. Be in my sisters' weddings

Seven things I cannot do:
1. Fly fish (well, I haven't tried, but it looks hard and boring)
2. Talk in front of a big audience
3. Be a movie star
4. Be consistant in spending money (sometimes I won't buy anything even if I need to, and sometimes i get carried away)
5. Copying Ainsley...cut up an onion w/out crying!
6. Win at Risk
7. Have the patience to make cookies more than about twice a year

"Because I can't fill in "Seven things that attract me to Hubby"
Seven things that attract me to a guy (not necessarily in this order)":
1. A sense of humor kind of like mine (scary)
2. Patient
3. Kind to others
4. Doesn't worry
5. Is interested in the church around the world
6. Not too clingy
7. But kind of likes me ;)

Seven things I say most often:
1. Um
2. like
3. totally
4. oh my gosh
5. I love that!
6. dumb
7. cool
Yes, I am lame!

Seven books I love:
1. War and Remberance
2. The Betsy-Tacy books
3. Northanger Abbey
4. To Kill a Mockingbird
5. Peace Like a River (by Lief Enger)
6. Romans
7. Busman's Honeymoon

Seven movies you watch over and over again:
1. St Ives
2. You've Got Mail
3. Prisoner of Azkaban
4. An Ideal Husband
5. Mostly Martha
6. Sweet Home Alabama
7. U2: Live from Slane Castle
But the movie I really want to see again is Hotel Rwanda...anyone want to watch it with me soon?

Seven people I want to join in, too:
I can't think of 7, but I'd like Rachel to...

Cooking...and eating, of course

For Brooke: here's the great interview with Amanda Hesser I was telling you about.

I tell you, Cooking for Mr Latte has been a huge inspiration. I'll never buy $600/lb mushrooms and maybe I'll never taste a Meyer lemon, but I've had a lot of fun cooking lately, thanks partly to Amanda. :) And of course, now I'll follow Brooke's lead and buy real, coarse sea salt so everything will taste good!

Melodee adds Monday's Quote (on Tuesday):

Do you still use Equal?
Mr. Latte: I now use only honey from apiaries farmed on the slopes of Mount Parnassus.

Amanda discovers... what creme fraiche is. Doesn't sound so good to me! *shock*

I love that Mr Latte quote.

Thursday Links

I figured I couldn't slack two weeks in a row...

iPod news: A ROKR sabotage?? Oh, you tricky tricky Apple... In other iPod news, apparently the iPod video has been an excellent idea. They seem to be the Christmas gift of choice. Yeah, I guess i wouldn't mind owning one of those buggers. Maybe I need to trade mine in, huh?

This is kind of cool - a real-time HTML editor. Test it out, Melodee, and see if it works, ok?

Fainting video. It's funny what amuses people. Ok, I admit I thought it was funny.

One of my biggest fears is being invaded by a drunken moose. This link is dedicated to my aunt Maria who seems to think that every deer in Montana is going to "hoof" her.

Ok, I don't like spiders OR snakes, but I'm rooting for the spider in this fight.

I DARE you to bid on this. Geez, what some people will try and sell!!!

Windows Messenger 8.0 BETA!! Ok, you download it first from this obscure German website and let me know how that works for ya.

Ok, this disturbs me that I think this looks kinda good.

Check out this awesome stop-motion flash video of a human skateboard. I want to know just how long it took them to make this.

Ok, and for all you Napoleon Dynamite fans, now YOU TOO can learn to dance like the big ND. This is actually kinda funny.

Wednesday Science Stories

These really are science stories. I was reviewing a book at work today (Scientists Through the Ages); it has 2-3 page bios of some great but not always well known scientists, with experiments to go with the field(s) each one made discoveries in. Cool idea.

Anyway, I had to try hard not to read too much, because the lives of these scientists were just so fascinating. Marie Curie's story sticks out the most. She was born in Poland, to a family with not much money. Her sister and she promised to put each other through school, so Marie worked until her sister became a doctor, and then she got to go to university in Paris, where she supposedly lived off bread and hot chocolate (because they were cheap). Her last year, she married a guy named Pierre Curie, and they went on to discover things together, like the fact that plutonium was radioactive. (I can't give you a good scientific definition of radioactive, unfortunately.) She's the one that named radioactivity, "radioactivity." But was that in French or English? Anyway, they both won a Nobel prize - she was the first woman to win one, I think. But working with radioactive elements gave them both a short life. Their daughter (Irene?) also won a Nobel prize, and also died young because of her work with radioactivity.

Also memorable was Mary Anning, called in her day "the Princess of Paleontology" because she discovered so many dinosaur fossils in Lyme Regis in the 1810s-30s. Her family was very poor and made a living selling fossils, but I guess she became quite knowledgeable on the subject, as well as expert at finding them.

And then there is the wife of chemist Antoine Lavoisier, Marie-Anne. She got married at the age of 14, and learned English so she could read about the English scientific advances to her husband. But he was unfortunately part of a tax collector group as well as a scientist, and had his head chopped off during the French revolution.

Hmm, I didn't pay too much attention to the scientific aspects. Their lives were just too interesting. ;)

Music

I was just noticing yesterday what a difference music can make in a work day. I put on headphones to drown out the printer on the other side of my cubicle wall, made a new playlist, and the day just sped by. (It didn't work so well today, though, because it was all a repeat.) The highlights were U2, Wilco, Nickel Creek, and Alison Krauss and Union Station.

All these bands really just say a lot, I realized. My favorite song quote is Death Cab for Cutie ("A Lack of Color"):

And when I see you, I really see you upside down
But my brain knows better, it picks you up and turns you around

I always forget how our eyes work!

But then there's also U2, who are always quotable. Party because Bono can make even the most silly lyrics (e.g., "The air is heavy, heavy as a truck. We need the rain to wash away our bad luck") just sound good. The line most stuck in my head, though is from "Ultraviolet" on Achtung Baby.

You bury your treasure where it can't be found
But your love is a secret that's been passed around.
There is a silence that comes to a house
Where no-one can sleep.
I guess it's the price of love; I know it's not cheap.

I remember when we could sleep on stones.
Now we lie together in whispers and moans.
When I was all messed up and I heard opera in my head
Your love was a light bulb hanging over my bed.

What music makes your day "go better"?

Something New To Look At

Just because nobody seems to have time or inspiration to post anything, I've got a few new pictures. They have nothing to do with each other, but they just something new to look at. Enjoy!

Cache in his Pirate Halloween costume. ARGH!!!

My department at work all dressed up as reality TV characters for Halloween. I AM in the picture, I'm just a little harder to find. You get a gold star if you can find me.

This beast was in my neighbor's backyard on Saturday. He was hurt or sick or something, so he just hung out all day in spite or my guard dog theatening to rip his throat out.

Thursday Broken Links

No links this week....sorry. Too much workin'. Not enough surfin'.

Amanda says...
But when you get caught up, you can get back to your GoogleTalkin' and maybe even someday some of this.

Oh, FYI, I've decided that someday I'm going to a monster truck rally. It looks fun.

Check this out.

Here are some interesing photos. Lots of mosques, chruches, abbeys, tombs, temples, etc.